The official site of the movement to quit changing clocks in and out of DST.

03/28/2020

Just a quick post to say that this topic is on the back burner, just for a bit. Like the rest of the world, I hope that soon we have adequate testing and that we can get back to life that will be a new normal.

For years I’ve gotten emails, tweets and general complaints that this issue just is not all that important. Legislators get that all the time on this, and really on just about any issue: Why are you working on this when you could be working on [insert pet issue here]?

But now even I say that Daylight Saving Time is an issue that can wait. Once we no longer all need to shelter in place, we can pick things back up.

Also there’s just not as much to report about. Like everything else, state legislatures have suspended meeting. And the federal efforts are stuck because nothing non-Covid-19 related is happening.

I was hoping that this year we’d get to 20 states that have passed something. We had three states pass something before the crisis hit: South Carolina, Ohio and Utah, (which passed a bill this year after passing a resolution last year.)

Then just as the legislatures started adjourning, Wyoming passed its bill, and from a socially distant desk, the governor of Wyoming signed the bill into law with little fanfare this week. The sponsor of the bill contacted me when it was signed, and we celebrated electronically. I was personally bummed because Wyoming is close enough that I could have easily made it for a bill-signing ceremony, but there was no ceremony. There are far bigger tragedies associated with COVID, but still...

So, I will continue to monitor the news, but not a lot else. With luck by the time the Fall Back change comes in November, as a society we will have enough capacity to handle recovery AND fixing the clocks.

03/12/2020

It's not that it wasn't going well. It was great. It grew really quickly, and even inspired a copycat effort from a troll, so we'll call that flattery.

But after it got going, a couple of things happened.

I had some people tell me they signed and donated, and they were glad that I could get some money to help in the cause. The problem is that I didn't ask for money. The petition site did. I'm sure this was all in the Terms of Service, etc., but it felt really spammy and gross, and I didn't want anyone else getting fooled, so I shut it down.

COVID-19. I have written before about the kind of "whataboutism" that leads to nothing getting done on anything, but the Coronavirus has escalated rapidly in every way, and it just seems intrusive to be pushing this issue at this moment.

I actually did make some progress on one of the goals of the petition, which was to get this on the radar of a certain senator and a certain committee in Washington.

I can't say too much more about the last bit just yet, but I am hopeful for some good news that I'll be able to report soon. When I can announce it, I will do it here, or on my twitter feed, first.

So, to those of you who did sign, thanks! And if you donated, thanks even more. I didn't get the money, but that's probably a big part of why it went so well.

And I hope that you've all now adjusted to having an hour of sleep yanked away from you. Things will quiet down now a bit on this blog, but you can rest assured that I'll be working for you in public, and behind the scenes, until the government stops making us change the clock twice a year.

03/08/2020

This is the sixth year I have been blogging about this, and in all that time I have never really asked you, the reader, for anything.

I have never, not one time, asked anyone for money for this cause.

I’ve never sold any “merch” as the kids like to call it.

There are no pop-ups begging you to join my email list. (I only added an email list last year, and have only sent, I think, three emails. If you would like to, you can sign up here.)

Just yesterday, however, I decided to do something that I have openly mocked in the past, and that is to start a petition.

I have seen dozens of these things, and they have all done the same amount of good: Zilch.

But people like signing them because it feels like you are doing something.

Well, I decided to merge that desire that people have to do something with a petition that might actually make a dent.

You see, right now there is one person who is blocking progress on #LockTheClock.

That is Sen. Roger Wicker from the great state of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the Commerce Committee in the U.S. Senate.

For reasons that only historians can love, all of the clock management happens through the Department of Transportation, and that department fall under the purview of the Commerce Committee.

Right now there is a bill in front of that committee called the Sunshine Protection Act. It has not yet gotten a hearing.

Now when I was a kid and I learned how a bill became a law, I never imagined that a bill could get introduced and then NOT get a hearing. I mean, if a senator cares enough to officially submit a bill, it seems like a committee should have to at least look at it. If it loses a vote, fine, but it should be able to get a vote, right?

Well, that is not how it works. It turns out that a bill only gets a hearing when the chair of the committee says it gets a hearing.

That’s where the act is sitting right now, waiting for a hearing.

Now, I don’t think that Sen. Wicker is actually against this idea. I mean, consider:

He is a Republican, but the bill is sponsored by another Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio.

He is from Mississippi, but a co-sponsor of the bill is the other senator from Mississippi, Sen. Hyde-Smith.

He can’t be thinking that people hate it because so many states are now specifically asking for it, and polls are always really clear that people hate the clock-changing.

He served in the Mississippi legislature, which now has nine different bills basically all in line with the Sunshine Protection Act.

I think he just doesn’t know about it.

So, I want to help him learn about it. Hence the petition. I will personally deliver all these signature to him, his staff and anyone else that might help him to decide to give this bill a hearing.

That is why for the first time I am genuinely asking you to do one thing that will not take much time, and add your name to this petition:

One small note: That petition is hosted on change.org. A thing I didn't know when I put the petition there is that change.org asks for money after you sign. You do NOT need to give money. That all goes to change.org, which is actually a for-profit company. You can if you want, but don't think the money comes to me. As always, I am not asking for donations.

Thanks for reading, and thanks especially for signing that, and then sharing it with everyone you know. With this one thing, maybe we can get this bill a hearing, and the voice of the sleep deprived around the country will finally be heard.

03/06/2020

With apologies to Gabriel García Márquez, here in the busiest weekend of the #LockTheClock movement, I want to address something I am seeing a lot right now.

In short, I call it: Whataboutism.

The argument is always something like:

Really, with (insert issue here) going on, you think this is the most important thing you can do?

I get it. Even though I am the leader of the #LockTheClock movement, and even though I have probably spent more time working on this issue than anyone over the last six years, I understand that it is not the most important thing in the world.

Like everyone else, I find myself transfixed by a lot of the COVID-19 coverage.

But other than washing my hands for at least 20 seconds every time I come home, it doesn’t seem like there is a heck of a lot I can do about that.

On Daylight Saving Time, there is something I can do. I can continue to write here. I can talk to more legislators and staff. I can tweet and I can keep reading all the studies and then I can do all of that some more.

It doesn’t take anything away from COVID science to say that the science on the Spring Forward clock changing is really clear. A study just came out recently that directly attributes an additional 28 traffic deaths per year to a sleep-deprived and groggy populous in the days after the Spring Forward DST change.

And for every death there are countless other accidents and heart attacks. The research could not be any more clear.

Look, if DST clock changing doesn’t bother you, just consider yourself lucky. But don’t get mad at others because they are working on it, and don't think just because politicians are working on this, that they aren't also working on lots of other issues.

The sun is going to keep coming up, no matter what we do. But the way that we agree to run the clocks, that is up to us. Here on the weekend of the deadly time change, how about we agree to do what we can to fix that, or at least not be so critical of others who are trying to make a difference?

03/04/2020

I've been working with state and federal lawmakers and staffs for years now, and often testify when it works out with my schedule and frequent flier miles.

There’s a hearing tomorrow in Maryland that I would love to be at, but I have a small cold with a cough, and given the Coronavirus fears, I’m worried that the other passengers on the plane might toss me out the emergency exit door somewhere over Ohio.

So, here’s a version of the testimony that I would have given.

If you live in a state that has a pending bill, I recommend that you go and testify if you want to see an end to the clock-changing insanity.

To do that, just find the bill on this page, and then look for the lead sponsor. Contact that person, and tell them that you want to testify.

When you get to the statehouse on the day of the hearing, there will probably be some kind of sign-up form. Find that to make sure they call on you.

Then when it is your turn, you can either speak from the heart, or read prepared testimony. I typically write something, but then just end up speaking without the notes. Writing it beforehand just helps me make sure I'm going to get all my points in.

Sometimes the sessions are recorded, sometimes not. If you do it, be sure to get someone to take your picture. You’ll want that later for sure. (You can send it to me and I’ll tweet about it from my #LockTheClock account or write about it on this blog.)

To help, there are some videos of a couple of the times I’ve testified on my videos page.

If you can, ask the sponsor to sit next to you, so that if there are questions about the legislative process, or whatever, you can defer to the lawmaker. That’s what I did recently in Atlanta:

I collected that research, and put it on a page on my blog. That collection of research then lead to legislators contacting me, and journalists around the world asking me to help them understand this issue.

You see, this was once viewed as a quirky, almost meaningless issue. The clocks are the clocks, and certainly somebody somewhere has a reason why they are this way.

It turns out that there is no good reason for changing the clocks. The history is a painful collection of diversions from other issues.

In short, the farmers are not the reason for Daylight Saving Time, and in fact the farmers have always been against the clock changing.

We do it now, really, only because we’ve always done it. The reasons are lost to the mists of history.

The thing that we know now that we didn’t fully understand when the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was signed into law was that the actual changing of the clocks is deadly. The most recent study issued just on the single issue of traffic safety says that 28 deaths per year are directly attributable to the Spring Forward time change. That’s on top of all the other deaths from heart attacks and more.

This is no longer a quirky issue, it is a legitimate public policy health issue. If a toaster came out that killed or injured hundreds of people every year, how fast would the government take action?

In short: The Government is in charge of the clocks. The clocks are killing people. It’s time to Lock The Clock.

Now, your next question may be: What good does this bill do? We need the federal government to take action.

I can tell you that every time a state bill passes, I let the sponsors of the two main bills in front of Congress know, and they are very interested for the news. And they use that information.

For instance, Sen. Marco Rubio has a bill to #LockTheClock. His co-sponsors include Senator Patty Murray of Washington State. She signed up immediately after the Washington state legislature passed a bill to put Washington State into permanent Daylight Saving Time.

So will this bill in front of you today actually fix the clocks for the people of Maryland, or will it just be a signal to the U.S. Congress? I don’t know, but either way, it is progress in the right direction.

There is no partisan angle to this bill at all. There is only good government. In these fraught times, the citizens are looking to our leaders to actually do something to show that government can actually work on behalf of the people. This is just the thing that you can do today that will make things better for real people.

Thank you very much, and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

03/01/2020

State legislatures in the U.S. are an amazing part of our democracy. They vary a lot, and in many ways take on the personality of the states they are in.

As a whole, I find them to be far less dysfunctional than the U.S. Congress.

In part because most of them are limited in time, and March 1 is more or less the halfway point for many of the legislative sessions.

So, how are we doing in 2020?

Great!

Just as a recap, I have been following this stuff for six years now. For the first four years I watched as dozens of bills died. In 2017 Massachusetts passed a bill calling for a study, so that was a glimmer of progress.

Then in 2018 Florida actually passed a bill, on the heels of California voters passing a proposition that had been proposed by the legislature.

Then in 2019 another seven states passed some sort of bill. I listed them all on this page.

How many bills will pass this year? My prediction, and my hope, is that nine states will pass something. Then when you toss in Arizona and Hawaii, where the clock is already locked, we will have 20 states in 2020 that have taken action to end the insanity of Daylight Saving Time switching.

Here’s a look at progress here in 2020:

South Carolina

The first state to get something all the way through the process in 2020 is the Palmetto State, where the governor signed a bill into law on February 3rd!

The law mirrors Florida’s law, saying that as soon as the Feds allow it, they want to go into Permanent Daylight Saving Time.

Georgia

The difference between a bill and a law, I’ve found, is often the energy and grit of the sponsor. In Georgia, voters are well represented by Wes Cantrell, who has three bills percolating. I testified there on one of the bills, but I support all three of them.

My bet is that the one that will get signed is the one that will match the laws in Florida and South Carolina, creating a solid block in the southeastern part of the U.S.

Maryland

There’s a hearing this Thursday in Maryland, which may be extra helpful because it will get some headlines in the state many of the lawmakers and staff members in Washington D.C. actually live in.

The proposed bill there is great. It is more like the bills from the South, which just call for Maryland to move to Permanent DST, than the bills from north of Maryland, which often call for moving to DST but only if all the surrounding states do that, too.

As with all the other states, the legal impact of passing something won’t be huge, but the message it sends to congress will be gigantic.

Wyoming

Again here, a hard-working and persistent sponsor makes all the difference. I was honored to come to Wyoming and testify on behalf of Dan Laursen. His bill last year fell one vote short, but this year it looks like it may make it across the finish line.

Illinois

There is a lot of action in Illinois. This could be huge, because if California, Florida, Texas and Massachusetts have all taken action, it will look like New York State is being left out of the conversation among the most populous states. And if New York comes over to the light side, well, that’s the ball game.

Michigan

I had a delightful time testifying in Michigan a couple of years ago, and then I submitted written testimony last year.

When I testified, the proposal was to move the state into Permanent Daylight Saving Time. I pointed out that they might want to consider Permanent Standard Time for two reasons:

Michigan is so far north that the days are very short in the winter and long in the summer so even in Standard Time citizens there would get the sunsets that much of the rest of the country gets in Daylight time, and,

Because four counties on the western edge of the Upper Peninsula are in the Central Time Zone, there could be some weird discrepancies in time in that little zone. Going to Permanent Standard Time would allow them to unify the state.

The bill didn't change when I was there, but the current bill under consideration does just that.

I’m often falsely accused of advocating for Permanent Daylight Saving Time for all. What I actually think is that we should all #LockTheClock and then the states that are on the border of a time zone should decide what time zone works best for that state. Michigan is a classic example where moving to permanent Standard Time makes sense.

Utah

A real champion of fixing Daylight Saving Time is Rep. Ray Ward of Utah, who is also a medical doctor. We were on a panel together hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures, and then we got to have dinner together after at the airport on the way home.

In 2019, he was able to get a resolution signed in Utah, which is a nice symbolic step forward, but doesn't have the force of law.

It follows the cooperative model. Before Utah can #LockTheClock, the feds need to fix the law AND other surrounding states need to pass similar laws.

That is another important step forward.

Mississippi

There are six different bills working their way down the great Mississippi legislative process.

I’m watching these closely and working with the sponsors as much as possible for one key reason: The one person in the world doing more to stop progress on #LockTheClock right now is from there.

You see, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, a former senator in the Mississippi State Senate, is now a U.S. Senator, and is the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Why does that matter? That’s the committee where the Sunshine Act is now stuck, not getting a hearing.

Why is that?

Nobody seems to know.

But my hope and goal is that if the Mississippi legislature—the same body in which he once served—takes action that he won’t be able to help but notice and he will release his stranglehold on the federal bill.

Other states

I could say something about many of the 30-odd states working on this, but this is probably enough for today. Suffice it to say that things are moving, and the states that decide to wait on this are the ones that will be left out of the conversation.

If you are a state legislator and you worry your bill is stalling, or you just want to talk through strategies that will help you get something passed and signed, be in touch. I’m happy to talk.

While the headline, and indeed much of the writing, is obtuse and clouded in the dry vernacular of medical research, the impact of that article was massive.

You see, in short what that article said was that sugar wasn't really as much of a health worry as previously thought. It’s fat in foods that is really the danger.

And that one notion — fat, not sugar, is bad for you — spread throughout society, reaching into government, agriculture, popular culture, and the dining habits of people around the world. Consider:

The lead author of that article went on to work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and helped create the governments dietary guidelines that emphasized reducing the intake of fat.

High Fructose Corn Syrup, first produced only 10 years earlier, ballooned in use until the average American was eating 37.5 pounds of it per year by 1999.

The doctrine of “low fat” pervaded nearly all of the discussion about food, and yet Americans kept having more and more chronic health problems related to obesity.

It took 50 years for the general public to learn that the very prestigious and influential article in the very prestigious and influential journal was a part of a massive and insidious PR effort by... the sugar industry.

It was those who made money selling sugar that realized that sugar was really bad for people, and it would be bad for business if too much was made of that. Yet, it would be too obvious to come out and say, “Sugar is good for you!”

But they could try a diversion. They could try to find a new bad guy. They could try to create a root cause of health problems that was something other than their own product. And because the human body craves fat as an important source of nutrition, people will seek to fill in that craving with something that hasn’t been vilified in the way that fat had been. People will want more sweet stuff to fill in for their cravings for fat.

Brilliant.

Of course, it would only work if two things were in place:

There was a nugget of truth in the notion that “fat is bad for you” and,

They could find some scientists who would be willing to go along.

The first one, of course, is axiomatic. If you eat nothing but bacon and butter, you will not be healthy. Happy, but not healthy.

The second one took a bit of work, but there are always academics who have distinct points of view. A part of how academics can get published, etc., is if they have unique points of view, and with enough academics out there there are enough points of view, someone who has an agenda to push can always find someone to give voice to their commercial interests.

Sugar and Daylight Saving Time

How is this related to the fight to #LockTheClock?

To understand that you first need to understand a bit about me and this effort.

I spend time on this for a couple of reasons. The first is that it's a topic that interests me. I didn't really want to be the leader of this movement, but there wasn't anyone else doing it so I decided that I could step up. I'm a writer and I've created three businesses, and so I figured I could make a blog and do some light advocacy on nights and weekends. I've been doing that for more than five years now.

I also have some searches set up so that every time there's a story or a tweet about DST, I get a notification. I don't read every single thing, but it's easy to see some trends.

I've also seen a lot of efforts come and then fade away. I was the only one pushing the name "Lock the Clock" on the internet. Someone came along and registered locktheclock.com and even made a website. They then lost interest and now the domain sits dormant. I've seen reporters and politicians wholesale copy stuff off my website. I've seen dozens of different petition efforts, all of which have gone exactly nowhere.

So I really understand this space.

In the last year, however, I saw something that was actually new. It's a website that's pushing the point of view that we should switch to Standard Time year round.

The site, and the social media push around it, taken together are slick, much slicker than anything I’ve come up with.

Even more impressive is the collection of people with intimidating-looking academic credentials who pop up to push this particular agenda.

In fact, when taken as a whole, it looks a lot like... well, like the effort from the sugar industry.

I mean, what they have right now is two things:

A nugget of truth: Permanent Standard Time is likely better for circadian rhythms, and,

A group of scientists who are active in pushing that particular point of view.

Sound familiar?

Before we get into who is pushing that point of view, let’s dissect it.

As I said, it does have a nugget of truth. On my research page I put a link to a study often cited by these circadian sleep scientists. Especially if you live near the western edge of a time zone, permanent standard time is better for you from the perspective of sleep scientists.

But that is not the only body of science that exists.

If there was a shadowy, well-funded effort for Permanent DST, it would enable scientists who study health or childhood obesity to promote the studies showing that children and adults spend more time outside exercising if there is more sunlight after school and after work.

Or those people in the shadows might promote the work of scientists showing that Permanent DST would save lives of people and animals because night-driving is simply more dangerous.

Perhaps the unseen funders would push the idea that air pollution is worse in Permanent Standard Time.

While we agree that political actors need scientists’ advice in the DST/ST debate now, this does not justify a one-sided perspective. On the contrary, it underlines the importance of adequately communicating what scientists do (not yet) know. Especially in an emotionally charged debate, where scientists’ recommendations might clash with people’s preferences and perhaps even with the results of a referendum, we otherwise risk squandering scientists’ credibility in the long run.

What is the group in the shadows?

The interesting part for me personally is that I don't yet know what industry is behind this particular push.

But the strategy, while dated, could be effective, as long as nobody sees who is in the background.

You see, my point of view that I've been super consistent on for the last six years is that we should first agree that we need to end the clock changing. After that we can have a discussion about what the right time zone is state by state.

That very notion is getting some serious traction.

That's what Europe did, and it makes sense. They’ve said that in 2021, the clock-changing will end and each country can make up it’s own mind about what time zone it wants to be in permanently.

We could do the same thing. Arizona clearly wants to stay in Mountain Standard time, and that makes sense given the climate, the lifestyle, etc. Massachusetts, which is way east in the Eastern Time Zone, in general would like to be permanently in what’s now DST, or for that state it could be Atlantic Standard Time. The people of Indiana, which is nearly 1,000 miles from Massachusetts, may decide they want to be in the time zone of their neighbors in Illinois.

My point has always been that I shouldn’t decide that, and you shouldn’t decide that, but the people of each of those states should decide that.

If we agree to get rid of the clock changing, then each of the states will figure it out. And then after that we can have the related conversations about things like what time school should start.

So that's why I have been saying that we should all come together and agree to #LockTheClock first, and then figure out the rest.

But now we have a group trying forcefully to argue the second question first. That has the effect of throwing sand into the gears of the whole #LockTheClock conversation.

Who would do such a thing? Who has a business interest in keeping the status quo.

I Do Not Know.

I guess we could wait 50 years to figure that out, as with the sugar industry, or we could make some guesses right now, and so that’s what I'm going to do here.

My best guess is that the bad guys right now are television executives, especially sportscasters.

In Standard Time, people stop doing stuff outside sooner, and come inside sooner after work and are quicker to get to their couch. A televised sportsball event that starts at 8 p.m. in the East starts at 5 p.m. in California. If it’s light outside, Californians may decide to spend time outside, but if it’s dark they’ll get in and turn on the game.

NFL games that start at 4 p.m. in the East begin during DST when there's still a couple of hours of sunlight, tempting people to spend their Sunday afternoons outside. During Standard time those 4 p.m games start in the gloaming, the sun telegraphing that it’s time to go inside and get to the couch.

This is conjecture, of course, but based on one thing I know for sure after my visit to Connecticut.

I spent the better part of the day there, a small part testifying and most of the day talking to other legislators. By the time I left it was clear we'd worked out a compromise bill that had the votes needed to not only pass, but to pass with a wide margin.

And then some time went by, and... nothing.

Then came the news: The bill was dead. It didn’t get voted down in what we think of as part of the democratic process we learned about as kids. It died because some unseen hand made sure that it never made it to the floor to get voted on.

How did that happen?

I have some sources in Connecticut who tell me that ESPN, based in Bristol, Conn., along with some other TV Sports lobbyists, killed it.

How? Nobody knows.

We do know from the public records that ESPN spends about a quarter million dollars a year with the lobbying firm of Powers, Brennan & Griffin LLC.

And we know that in addition, ESPN has three in-house lobbyists that work to influence lawmakers in Hartford.

My guess is that someone from that lobbying firm had a quiet meeting with someone from the legislature in some quiet corner, probably of a steak restaurant, and talked about how this bill could be bad for Connecticut. And—just like the hopes and dreams of those of us who believe in democracy—the bill died not with a bang, but a nearly silent pfffffffffffffffffffffft.

But those people behind the scenes in Connecticut, and probably a bunch of others in New York City, I’m guessing, realized that the idea of #LockTheClock was starting to gather strength, and so that idea itself needs to be defeated.

And that’s when they came up with a plan. I’d like to think they called it the Sugar Plan, as a nod to their spiritual forefathers who helped them figure out how to scuttle an idea that’s bad for business.

The result of that plan is “Save Standard Time.” It's got just a nugget of truth, it’s got some academics willing to put their name on it. It’s perfect.

Who is “Jay Pea”?

The main “person” behind the effort gives the name of Jay Pea. My guess is this person’s real name is something that starts with a J and a P, but who knows. This “person” doesn't have a LinkedIn page. While he or she says that he or she is a programmer, he or she doesn't have any of the pages on places like GitHub where programmers almost always have a presence. There is a Jay Pea on YouTube who seems really interested in the totally real fights of the WWE. In short, Jay Pea is really an Ess Pea: A Sock Puppet.

And now the anonymous people behind that anonymous page and anonymous twitter account are combining with some real people in relentless trolling of every tweet I make, every blog I post, no matter how innocuous. Maybe someday I’ll be able to figure out what the money is behind these trolls.

Is it the TV industry?

When I got interviewed for the Daily Show, one of the funny bits of back and forth was when I told Desi Lydic that the TV industry was in favor of having it darker earlier, she mocked indignation that anyone would accuse her employers—she called them “TV People”—of doing anything so cynical. I thought it was one of the funniest bits of the interview, and yet it got cut. Maybe the editors just didn’t think it was as funny, but...

If it’s not the TV people, is it someone else? Who is it that has this plan to muddy the #LockTheClock mission?

Will that plan work?

Not while I’m alive.

First I’m going to have some eggs with lots of butter, and then back to work getting one, clear idea out there into the world:

02/26/2020

Because this effort to fix Daylight Saving Time is basically just me writing blog posts, emailing legislators and talking to people, I never really step back and do any kind of planning or organizing.

I certainly never have marketing meetings to talk about the message.

But yesterday that happened for me in the Georgia state capitol.

And boy did it pay off.

OK, first the message, and then the back story:

Great, eh?

Only took me six years to come up with that. Jeesh.

OK, here’s the backstory:

For a while now I’ve been communicating with Rep. Wes Cantrell in Georgia. Like other legislators around the country, I immediately liked the guy. There are definitely both Democrats and Republicans who care about this, and the thing they always have in common is a tendency toward Good Government and being responsive to their constituents.

He told me the bill was coming up for a crucial hearing, and I have a bunch of frequent flier miles and hotel points, so I told him I'd be happy to fly down to testify. I'm so glad I went, because I got something really valuable in return: A clean, coherent message.

When I go to states to testify, I typically spend some time with the sponsor, and then sometimes there's some impromptu lobbying, and quite often some talking to reporters. As a former reporter, I’m always happy to do that.

But I never really listen to what I’m saying, I just blurt out as many facts as I can.

Yesterday, however, after the hearing, I got to sit down with Rep. Cantrell and a couple of other people who had been in the hearing room, including his wife. One of those in the room said that when I said one thing, the whole issue really crystalized for him.

The government is in charge of clocks. The clocks are killing people. It's time to Lock The Clock.

02/20/2020

I testified Monday in Wyoming on a very sensible Daylight Saving Time bill, and it sailed out of committee on an 8-1 vote.

(That one no vote was sort of smiling as he voted no. I think he was fine with it passing. He was distinguished -- my way of saying he was really old -- and I think he was voting to represent the constituency of people who remember when Standard Time was more common before the Uniform Time Act of 1966.)

My testimony was impromptu, mostly just answering questions. It was a respectful and legitimate conversation on the merits. I was very happy to hear the Farm Bureau testify that it supported the bill. The lobbyist from the bureau alluded to the tortured history that farmers have with Daylight Saving Time, and in a sense he saw this bill as a chance to put all that, finally, to rest.

Yesterday I testified in my home state of Colorado. The last time I testified in Colorado the proceedings were not so respectful as I was personally attacked by members of the House, and I was even told that my comments were out of order. I wanted to stand up, like Al Pacino, and yell: “I’m out of order??? You're out of order! This whole place is out of order!!!!”

But I didn't. I just apologized meekly and moved on. That was two years ago.

My plan going into this year was to speak truth to power, and if I got ruled out of order, well, maybe those interested can just read this or watch this video and see what I would have said before I get cut off.

My name is Scott Yates, and I'm the leader of the LockTheClock movement to end the insanity of changing the clocks twice per year.

I've testified all over the country on this topic, and the interchange with the lawmakers is always respectful, and very much on the actual topic of the significant health and safety concerns related to the government mandating that the entire population change all the clocks by an hour twice per year. Except in Colorado.

When I testified here in Colorado, I pointed out that the main reason that the ski industry said they were against fixing what is broken with time is that they needed morning sunshine to examine the ski lifts. I suggested that we all pitch in and buy them some flashlights.

That's when I was ruled out of order.

So I won't do that today. No way.

After that, I started doing some research, and came to a startling conclusion. In short, the whole “morning light” thing was not the real reason. I don't know for sure what the real reason is, but I suspect money is involved. Once a ski resort has sold you a lift ticket, it doesn't make any more money on you the more you ski. It only makes more money if you stop skiing and get into a resteraunt. The only way to get you off the mountain is to make it dark.

But as I sit here today, I don't actually think the ski industry even cares that much about this issues. Indeed, I think that if you kill this bill today, what is happening is simply a raw expression of power.

I have been working on this issue for six years now, and I pay close attention to what's happening around the country. Two states—Arizona and Hawaii—have locked the clock in Standard Time. Another 11 states have passed some kind of bill or resolution to stay in Daylight Time year round. Nearly all the rest have some kind of bill working to #LockTheClock. Only six states aren't doing anything right now.

Also I’m working closely with the office of Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Rob Bishop, both of whom have federal bills that would Lock the Clock, or allow states to do so more easily. Both have lots of bipartisan support, and in this post-impeachment world where legislators are anxious to say that they indeed did get something done and the only way to do so is with a bipartisan bill, both offices are optimistic that they will pass something this year.

But I’d like to draw your attention to five of the states that have passed legislation to fix Daylight Saving Time:

Washington,

Oregon,

California,

Utah, and

Maine.

From Mount Hood and Olympic Valley in the west to Sugarloaf in the east, or Jackson or Park City here in the Mountain Time Zone, there are a lot of ski resorts in those five states.

On Monday one of the 8 Yes votes in Wyoming was the representative whose district includes Jackson. No pushback at all. In the other states with a significant ski industry, absolutely no opposition. Nothing.

Does the sun interact with mountains differently in Colorado than it does in California? Do clocks work differently for skiers in Maine or Oregon?

Which leads me to think that maybe I was wrong, that the ski industry doesn't really care about getting more people off the mountain and into restaurants? What if they don't care about this issue that much at all?

Then what are we left with? What possible reason could the ski industry have in wanting to kill this bill year after year?

The only possible explanation I'm left with is that the ski lobbyists are killing this just because they can.

Larry Bird, one of the greats of the game of basketball, would sometimes deliver a hip check or make some unsportsmanlike comment, and not get called for it. Why would he do that? Precisely to show that he was the master in that building.

Similarly, I think the ski lobbyists use this topic simply as a way to flex.

Think about it from this perspective: Let’s say that you are doing a town hall in, say, Aurora, and a constituent stands up and says, “I understand that federal law may change, and we could have had a chance to vote on which time zone we like best, and you voted against giving us, the people who elected you, a voice. Why is that?” And then you respond with your voice trailing off: “The ski industry doesn’t have enough flashlights.”

It is beyond absurd—it is the stuff that turns people off to politics, and especially in this era, that is a shame.

This is good government 101. The government regulates time. The way that it does so right now kills and injures people. There is no partisan angle, just historically bad management of clocks. Previous generations of politicians didn't fully realize the high cost in life and money that clock-switching caused, but now we do know and yet we do nothing. Why?

Because of some lobbyists? Because of the raw exercise of power under the gold dome?

Imagine yourself again at that town hall, and when that constituent asks, imagine how great it would be for you to say: “You know what, I voted for you. I voted to give you that choice. It cost me politically, but I did it anyway because my job is to govern, and if we can't even govern the clocks, then what does that say? So I voted to bring some sanity to the clocks, and to give you a chance to be heard.”

So I ask you today: Hold your head up high and vote yes.

Thank you very much.

Postscript: How Democracy Dies, Just a Little

So, that was the testimony that I didn’t give, but my comments included a lot of that, but not the part calling out the lobbyists so directly.

Also, the reason that I had used Aurora as my hypothetical is that I thought the person most likely to buck the party leadership and vote would be Rhonda Fields of Aurora. If you click on that link you’ll see that she’s on the “Kill Committee” also known as “State Affairs.”

And she may have been willing to go her own way on that day. But she wasn’t on that committee on the day that bill was heard.

Colorado is a pretty clean state. We have these great rules that, for example, make it so that every bill gets a hearing. Most states aren’t like that, and bills often just die with no hearing at all.

But there are still ways to kill bills, and one is to assign them to the “state affairs” committee, a group whose mandate is so nebulous and membership so small that it can kill just about anything.

So the ski industry lobbyists worked with the leadership of the State Senate to assign this bill to the kill committee, and then just to make sure it would die, the leadership changed the membership of the committee just for one day.

Yes, just on February 19th, 2020, Sen. Fields was not on that committee, and she was replaced by Sen. Kerry Donovan.

Why Donovan?

Well, for one she's from Vail. Not just from Vail, her family practically founded the town. She talked about how her brother worked as one of the guys who inspects ski lifts, so she was insulted at my “flashlight” comments.

In short, she was about as reliable of a vote as you could find who would be willing to carry water for the ski industry lobbyists.

I was sunk before I walked into the room.

But the fact that the ski lobbyists had to go to such extreme measures to kill the bill, I think means the gig will soon be up.

And besides, the amendment that we offered was a good one. It didn’t commit Colorado to do anything, just to take a preference poll that will only take effect if the federal law changes. Really, if the ski industry was smart they would agree to it so that they can try to convince Coloradans to stay in Standard Time year round. If daylight time would really mean death and dismemberment of ski employees, they can try to make that case to the voters and see if the voters believe it more than I do. Maybe the voters will buy it, they’ve believed less credible claims than that.

If the ski industry does not make that case, it will be stuck with the federal law, which most likely will be putting us into permanent Daylight Time.

The Denver Post story was so great, because it put right into print so everyone now knows what was formerly known only by people who hang around the capitol a lot: The ski industry is super powerful in Colorado, and is stopping the legislature from doing what it would otherwise want to do.

Now that the very concept of going against the ski industry is out in the open and being talked about, it’s kind of like the Emperor with No Clothes. It only takes one person saying it publicly, and the gig is up.

02/15/2020

A bill that says the state will go into permanent Daylight Saving Time, either when neighboring states do it, or when it is allowed by the federal government to do so.

A resolution calling on the federal government to allow the states to go into permanent Daylight Saving Time.

This year, we came up with a third approach in Colorado, which is to ask the voters which time zone they prefer once the feds pass an act.

I posted links to model language for all three below.

If you are a legislator currently working on this topic, well, you might consider this third way.

If you want to do it the first way, and think you have the votes to get it enacted... Go for it! (And let me know how I can help.) If you do not have the votes, however, maybe you could amend your current bill with this “Colorado” approach?

It is more substantial than a resolution, and it may help spur the change that we need out of Washington.

Model DST bills - Waiting on the Feds

Model DST resolutions

Third Way: Call for vote of the people before Federal Mandate

This is the complex, but legally sound way to ask for a vote of the people to figure out what permanent time they would prefer in the (likely) event that federal law suddenly takes away the clock-changing.

To download the PDF as created by the legislative lawyers in Colorado, click here.

If you have another approach, or think there is some language that would be helpful to legislators, please contact me.